Leaving Orbit: Notes from the Last Days of American Spaceflight

MILESTONES OF AMERICAN SPACEFLIGHT

• March 1926: First successful liquid-fueled rocket launched by American physicist Robert Goddard

• October 1942: Successful German test launch of the first ballistic missile, the V-2, later used on Allied cities near the end of World War II combat in Europe

• October 1947: Sound barrier broken by American test pilot Chuck Yeager

• October 1957: Soviet Union launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite; beginning of the space race

• February 1958: Launch of the first American satellite, Explorer 1

• July 1958: Establishment of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

• April 1961: First human spaceflight: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin

Project Mercury: Putting the First Americans in Space (1959-1963)

Six single-astronaut missions

• May 1961: First American to travel into space: Alan Shepard

• May 1961: President John F. Kennedy’s charge to Congress to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade

• February 1962: First American to orbit Earth: John Glenn

Project Gemini: Moving toward the Moon (1962–1966)

Ten missions to develop hardware and techniques for travel to the moon

• March 1965: First flight to carry two astronauts

• June 1965: First American spacewalk: Ed White

• December 1965: First rendezvous of two American spacecraft

• March 1966: First docking of two American spacecraft

Project Apollo: Walking on the Moon (1963–1972)

Eleven crewed missions, including six successful trips to the lunar surface

• January 1967: All three Apollo 1 astronauts—Roger Chaffee, Gus Grissom, and Ed White—killed in a cabin fire during a launchpad test

• December 1968: First trip to lunar orbit on Apollo 8

• July 1969: Apollo 11 crew makes first moon landing; Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on moon

• April 1970: Apollo 13 crew prevented from landing on the moon by oxygen tank explosion

• July 1971: First use of lunar rover on Apollo 15

• December 1972: Final moon landing Apollo 17

135 total flights of the orbiters Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, Endeavour—133 successful missions and two disasters resulting in loss of spacecraft and crew. Deployment and repairs to satellites, including the Hubble Space Telescope; assembly of the International Space Station over 37 missions.

• April 1981: First test flight of space shuttle Columbia

• June 1982: Last test flight of Columbia; shuttle program officially operational

• April 1983: First flight of Challenger; first shuttle spacewalk

• June 1983: First American woman in space: Sally Ride

• August 1983: First African American in space: Guy Bluford

• August 1984: First flight for Discovery

• October 1985: First flight for Atlantis

• January 1986: Explosion of Challenger 73 seconds after launch, destroying the spacecraft and killing all seven crew members, including teacher Christa McAuliffe

• May 1989: Venus probe Magellan deployed

• October 1989: Jupiter probe Galileo deployed

• April 1990: Hubble Space Telescope deployed

• May 1992: First flight for Endeavour

• June 1995: First shuttle docking with Russian space station Mir

• December 1998: First International Space Station assembly mission

• February 2003: Breakup of Columbia upon reentry of Earth’s atmosphere, destroying the spacecraft and killing all seven crew members

• February 2011: Final flight for Discovery

• May 2011: Final flight for Endeavour

• July 2011: Final flight of the space shuttle program (Atlantis)

The remaining shuttles become museum displays: Discovery at National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC; Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Florida; Endeavour at California Science Center, Los Angeles.